Wolf's Rain
by chicadoodle
Summary: After falling in an unnatural slumber in the woods outside of Privet Drive, Harry awakens to find himself in an unfamiliar world, with a man named Zarth who bears a shocking resemblance to Remus Lupin ........ {chapter 3 uploaded!}
1. bad habits

Harry ran a shaking hand through his hair, letting loose a heavy sigh. IN his ot her hand he flicked a half-smoked fag, before bringing it to his ips and taking a healthy puff and exhaling slowly, watching the smoke that escaped from his lips.

You know, those things can kill you," Came the muttered voice of Nymphadora Tonks, to which Harry gave no reply. After all, he'd heard much the same from her before.

Concealed beneath an invisibility cloak, Tonks rolled her eyes at the raven-haired youth's lack of response, contenting herself, instead, with randomly changing the color of nail polish, always keeping the colors bright and vibrant.

Taking one last drag of the cigarette, Harry tossed it off into the darkness, uncaring of the d anger to causing a fire. He wasn't quite sure why he had first started smoking, but by now it was a moot pint. It annoyed his "guards" to no end, and that in itself was enough of a reason for him to continue.

There was just something that he like about this place. A small clearing completely surrounded by trees, it was completely blocked off from Surrey. If he didn't know for a fact that Privet Drive was only 10 minutes walk away, he could have almost believed that he was really alone here. Or, well, as alone as one could be with a bumbling auror following his every movement.

It was peaceful here, and calm. No relatives weighing down his shoulders with constant insults and work, no wizards or witches expectinghim to be the perfect vision of light and goodness. No Dumbledore, always pushing and manipulating him in one direction or another. No Voldemort, no prophecies. Just Harry.

That was what it felt like, anyway.

Lighting another fag, Harry took a long, slow drag as he stared at the line of trees before him, idly wondering what people would o if he simply refused to leave here.

Placing his left foot behind his right one, Harry alowed himself to fall back onto the soft grass, a small "oof!" escaping his lips at the rough landin g. However, he made no move to move toa more comfortable posision, instead conenting himself with staring up at the clear night sky.

It was thus that he fell asleep, what remained of his cigarette falling from slack fi ngers, down to the ground.

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a/n -- heh. don't worry. this isn't what chapters are usually gonna be like in length. this was just what i had to get out before the true story started up. onto chapter two! enjoy :D


	2. strange visitors

When he looked back on that night, years later, he would find himself wondering why he didn't question the strangeness of his actions.

He didn't sleep. Or, well, atleast he tried not to. sometimes surviving an entire week through coffee and chocolate, on a constant sugar/caffeinne high. And yet, he had fallen asleep so easily that night. That should have been his first clue.

But he'd been so relieved that he hadn't experienced any visions that morn ing, or any run-of-the-mill nightmares, that everything else had slipped his mind.

And even after he'd discovered he was no l onger in that same clearing on the outskirts of Surrey, he'd never stopped to consider that maybe -- just maybe -- that sleep might have been unnatural.

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Harry groaned softly, raising a hand to clutch as his pounding head. Joy. The one time he didn't ahve either nightmares or visions, his head decided to complain the loudest way possible.

Wait. He'd fallen asleep outside, hadn't he? So why did it feel like he was lying in a bed? A bed far too co mfortable to be his own, back at the Dursleys.

Blearily blinking open his eyes, Harry stared at his surroundings in confusion. He lay on a large bed surrounded completely by curtains as black as midnight, obscuring his view of the rest of the room.

Even without looking at the room beyond though, he knew ins tictively that he wsn't at Hogwarts, or even a hospital, Muggle or otherwise. o self-repecting hospital, or even school infirmiry, would surround their patients in black -- only white, always.

Reaching forward to push the curtains aside, harry gasped in shock as a bolt of pure pain suddenly passed thro ugh his arm.

So, the curtains were warded. Understandable, if a bit alarming. For that meant that he was trapped -- a prisoner.

Sighing in frustration -- this always seemed to happen to him! -- Harry collasped back onto the bed, staring at the cieling above him in annoyance.

That annoyance quickly faded into curiosity, however, as he continued to stare at that cieling. It was wooden, and seemed to be in danger of falling down around him ........ or, well, technically, onl top of him.

Whoever had kidnapped him, they certaintly didn't have a good deal of money. Which means that he could cancel of ........ well, everybody he'd ever pissed off.

The sound of a door opening jarred Harry out of his thoughts. He glanced up just in time to watch as the curtains were parted, to reveal ........ Remus Lupin.

Harry blinked in surprise at that, staring at his former in shock. He hadn't seen hide nor hair of the olde rman since Sirius' death -- nobody had.

"remus --" He started only to be stopped short by the sigh tof another man, slightly shorted than Remus, appearing behind Remus. Coal black hair fell heavily in curls down to his shoulders, and bright green eyes watched Harry with keen interest.

"You aren't leading a double life on me, now ar eyou Zarth? Who's this 'Remus' character?" The unknown man turned his eyes on the man Harry had been sure was Remus Lupin, a smirk forming on his li ps.

"I must remind him of somebody he knows." Zarth sent his friend a mock glare, only succeeding in making the man burst out into laughter, before turning back to Harry with a small smile playing on his lips.

Now that he was looking for it, there were small differences in the man, from what Remus looked like. First and foremost, were his clothes. Instead of the usual tattered and frayed wizard's robes that Harry was so accustomed to seeing his favourite professor wearing, the man was dressed in a loose pair of blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt. His hair was longer, as well, although nowhere's near as long as that of his companion. And his eyes were a bright blue, in contrast to Rems' chocolate brown.

By the time he'd finished his appraisal of the differences betweent his man and Remus, whihch took all of 5 seconds -- Harry's entiere body had tensed up, ready to either fight or flee, whichever proved to be benificial.


	3. conversations and rituals

Zarth stared at the boy before him, brow furrowing in confusion. Something about this kid was ........ oddly familiar, almost saif he had met the boy before.

But now, he would remember those eyes.

Mentally shaking himself, Zarth glanced over at his companion to find Radhe cacnelling the spells that had prpeviously kept the boy locked into the bed.

RAdhe had insited on the spells, much to his displeasure. While he had been willing to give the boy the benifit of the a doubt. Radhe had been much more cynicle, trust far less easily than he did.

Waiting patiently for his briend to remove the spells -- for they not onl y kept the boy in, but kept them out as well -- Zarth allowed himself the leisurely pleasure or taking in everything about the boy.

dark, midnight black hair fell in messy waves over bright green eyes, a scar just barely visible on one side of his forehead.

He was obviously young, no more than 12 or 13 at the most, surely, but he was unnaturally thin for somebody ofthat age.

Clancing away and toward Radhe as the last of the spells were removed, Zarth frowned at the dark look that had passed over his friend's face.

Glancing back at the boy, Zarth smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring manner, settling himself on the bed and curling one leg beneath him as he did so.

Well, contrary to poular belief, my name isn't Remus. It's Zarth. And big dark and moddy over there is Radhe. Would you mind telling us what your name is?

Harry hesitated, before offering up in a small voice, "Harry," glancing nervously between the two men.

His smile was now comming more easily, and Zarth allowed himself to relax onto the bed, pointedly ignoring the death glare that Radhe was sending his way. Paying any sort of attention woud only encourage theman, the knew.

"Now that we've been introduced, would you m ind telling us what happened?" He was interrupted by Radhe's short burst of derisive laughter.

"Yes, do tell why you dropped straight out of the sky and into an ancient ritual. Completely ruined the ritual, as a matter of fact."

zarth found himself grinding his teeth togeather at his compan ion's interruption. Insulting the boy wasn't likely to get them answers any more quickly.

Harry merely settled for glaring at the man, lips tightly pressed togeather.

Inside his head, however, he was in constant turmoil. Fallen from the sky into an ancient ritual? Had he really done that?

Keeping his eyes firmly glued onto his hands, Harry replayed what he remembered of the last several hours, but came up as a blank as to how he could have appeared in the air as those people claimed he did.

"Harry,we need to know. The Elders are worried about why you 're here, and ho w you got here. Strangers aren't exactly very common here, and we need to know how you managed to get past the protective barriers around the villiage."

"I don't know. I don't know how I got here, or why I'm here. The last thing I remember, I was in the woods not far from my house. I fell asleep by accident, and then woke up here."

As Harry said this, he rose his eyes to meet those of the man he now knew as Radhe, defiantly staring back into those intense green eyes.

"He's telling the truth." Radhe said shortly, before turning toward the door. "I'll let the Elder's know that he's no threat."

As soon as he was gone, Harry allowed himself to relax slightly, turning his attention to the other remaining occupant of the room.


End file.
